569
AGN and galaxy evolution
Specola Vaticana, Castel Gandolfo, October 3-6, 2005
Scientific Organizing Committee
George V. Coyne (Vatican Observatory, Specola Vaticana), Stefano Cristiani (INAF-OAT),
Luigi Danese (SISSA-ISAS), Martin Elvis (SAO),
Fabrizio Fiore (INAF-OAR), Reinhard Genzel (MPE), Piero Madau (UCOLICK),
Alessandro Omizzolo (Specola Vaticana, Universit´a di Padova), Martin Rees (Cambridge University),
Local Organizing Committee
Alessandro Omizzolo (Specola Vaticana, Universit´a di Padova), Stefano Cristiani (INAF-OAT),
Fabrizio Fiore (INAF-OAR), Andrea Grazian (INAF-OAR)
Sponsorship
Specola VaticanaINAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste Alenia Spazio
ICRA ENEA CNR
570
FOREWORD
Last october in Castel Gandolfo, at The Vatican Observatory, was held a workshop on :”AGN and Galaxy Evolution”. The workshop consisted of ”invited talks” about 45 minutes each, prompting an extended discussion among all the 34 invited scientists on the topic presented by the speaker.
Why AGN and Galaxy Evolution? The huge quantity of data accumulated during the last years, derived from observations spanning many decads of the electromagnetic spectrum, are giving today, perhaps for the first time, the possibility to study the AGN phenomena in a com- plete way, in their full enviromental context. The intimate relations between AGN and galaxies, between AGN and the formation of galactic structures and their evolution, make now AGN a well established and powerful tool for cosmological studies. Around these arguments and those that were proposed by the creativity of the participants in their talks and in particular during the rich discussions, the workshop developed during the four days of work. It has been, we think, a successfull workshop, mostly thanks to the speakers and their professionality; but we cannot forget the preliminary work done by the SOC and the continuous work of the LOC, under the leadership of Fabrizio Fiore and Andrea Grazian: to all but in a special way to Fabrizio and Andrea our thanks.
Why at The Vatican Observatory? There is a simple answer! One of the native tasks of the Vatican Observatory is to take care of relations with the international scientific community at high levels. This also helps in gathering scholars from all over the world and to offer them a suitable and stimulating place to discuss the results of their scientific research. The good outcome of the workshop is testified by the positive feedbacks from the speakers, who also manifested the hope to meet again in Castel Gandolfo for similar meetings. Many more people asked to participate in the workshop but, only for logistic reasons, we could not accept their request. The direction and the scientific advisory board of the Memorie della Societ´a Astronomica Italiana accepted to publish the proceedings of the workshop on the journal: The Vatican Observatory is grateful to all of them also on behalf of the speakers.
